The farther away from the moral ideal, the more characteristic is at the disposal of the artist. That is why half-human half-beings always succeed better than half-gods.
Jean Paul Richter
So, the order from the pastry shop is received, the guests are collected and equipped in cartridges and magazines, it remains only to deliver them to the girls waiting for presents. Or not waiting, which would be more interesting.
The infiltration into Beacon was, as it should be, quiet and unnoticed. It was getting dark. I just walked up to the flight gliders and put the Scroll to the scanner.
" Oh, newbie?" - The pilot greeted me as I entered the cockpit with my security clearance. My sobbing over their safety procedures.
"Yeah, I just got a job," I shrug, "as a technician."
"And you're on night duty? I don't know, on the one hand - lucky, but on the other - even sympathize. Oh, and don't stand in the aisle, hop in!" - the guy waved cordially towards the co-pilot's seat. - "My name's Frank, by the way."
" Loki," we shook hands. - "What's this about sympathy?"
"They didn't tell you? I guess they wanted to surprise me," laughed the obviously bored pilot who wanted to chat. Why wouldn't he be bored? The automatics do it all by themselves. He's only needed here in case of an emergency. -The freshmen are just settling in now and starting to customize their rooms. Well, you know how active Hunters are, and teenagers too!" - Frank informed me with the patronizing superiority that only a twenty-something-year-old can have when talking about seventeen-year-olds.
" Uh, so?"
"Well, sometimes they get a little carried away, they short-circuit the wiring, they mess with the water, they break through the walls. And they don't care about the time of day, and the night shift is always shorter than the day shift," - ahem, that's right, the cockroaches in the heads of Aura users have always been outstanding. The big, fat ones.
"Okay, I get the sympathy, but why the luck?"
"Oh, yeah!" - the pilot raised his hands to the ceiling in indignation. - "A bunch of girls messed something up and are calling in a valiant repairman to fix it!"
" Hmmm... I saw a porno that started just like that..."
"That's what I'm talking about, and it's the night shift." - Yeah, well, I guess my partner has a bit of an imagination. - "Plus, you heard - Pyrrha Nikos and Weiss Schnee entered the Academy this year! The most famous Undefeated Champion and heiress of the Ashes Empire! Just in case you get lucky and... "
"Either one of them will snap a common man's neck before he can finish "baby, let's jump"."
"Yeah, but what girls they are!" - I had the dubious pleasure of listening to the sperm-toxic driver rant for the rest of the flight. Not a pleasant pastime, frankly. I mean, I shared his position, but it's one thing to think the same thing alone, and quite another to listen to some left-handed guy you've never seen before. But he also told me a lot about the local cuisine, and I think that even if I ran into someone from the administration or teachers, I could pass for a local newcomer.
But now the flight was over, and I parted with my new "friend", Nevermore flocked towards him. A slyly smiling Neo appeared beside me, who had been sitting somewhere in the passenger compartment the whole way and, judging by that sly face, was laughing wildly at my agony. It's good to be invisible... Eh... Well, hello, Beacon, let's go see how big your stock of materials is, I'm just sure that local workbenches require urgent maintenance! Well, it wasn't really the workbenches I was interested in, it was the supply store. It was a stupid idea to clean out the workbenches - they were probably filled to the brim before the start of the school year, and a sudden emptying would lead to additional suspicions. But it was possible to lighten the cartridges prepared for replacement, and then let Bikon's intendant deal with the suppliers, we are not proud people, we will fill our old ones with the extracted "crud".
Since the time was late, but it was still a long way to bedtime, I decided to find out the exact location of my... um, girlfriends. To do so, I needed to get on the "dorm" list. This could be done from any of the staff access terminals. I had access, and there were a lot of terminals around... Oooooh, they're getting rich, bourgeoisie, and in Wakuo children are starving, and one unfortunate trainee has to go to extremes to feed a little mute girl, and a number of other girls... ahem.
Anyway, I found the data, the rooms were already assigned to teams. There was, of course, a slight apprehension that something had gone wrong, but finding the RWBY suite opposite the door to the JNPR quarters put my doubts to rest - nothing had changed. Fifth floor overlooking the courtyard. So... wait a minute, what is this? If the plans are to be believed, the girls' room should have a gorgeous view of the men's training ground showers.
"Ozpin, you old perv! I just had a series of questions for you! "
" (V_v)????"
" Here, look!" - I'm showing the position of the object that angered me on the map.
"(^____^)!"
" What do you mean, "they'll have something to look at tonight"? Only I'm allowed to spoil my future minions! "
"(T_T)..."
"Alright, you can participate too," I 'relented'.
" (^_^)."
" Alright, what I need - I found it, now we can just wait until lights out. It's not even worth going to the workbenches now - in case there's an enthusiast already entrenched there?" - I had a strong suspicion that someone like Hood (or even she herself) might have already modified, filed, polished, or otherwise licked "her beauty". - "What do you want to do?"
" (>_>)..."
" No, we're not making out quietly in the tech room!"
" (T_T)..."
" Empty rooms are much better!"
" (^_^)!"
It was a busy time before lights out... No, fuck it, I'm not ironclad, and by the time we're done here, someone's gonna have to answer to their tight ass for all the wiggling that ass did while we were in an empty room... cuddled together playing some kind of roaming game on the Switch. No, what else are we supposed to do?! I mean, Frank's been a pain in the ass, but I'm not crazy enough to be having fun with a girl who shouldn't be here while I'm in enemy territory under a fake identity. Hmm... why does that thought, once voiced, not seem so bad to me? Grrrrr, Neo, stop squirming! Or get off my lap... Or no! Aah! No!
Anyway, when the clock struck twelve, I was happy to crawl out of the room, because something could have come out... untimely. But it didn't. Getting to RWBY's room through the empty corridors with dimmed light was no problem at all. Opening the door? Pfft, "self-sealing" followed by "unsealing" after a meter and I'm on the other side, and there's no Scroll to apply to the lock from the inside. So Neo walked in regally and graciously. All I had to do was play doorman.
The light of the split moon was enough to see the whole room without any problems, and... Yes, they'd really done it - they'd made two sort of (very "sort of") bunk beds out of four regular beds. In one place they hung the upper bed on ropes nailed to the ceiling, and in the second place they put it on the corners of the lower one, using books to "build up" the support legs. I had little idea what kind of magic held the whole thing together. I suspected it was Aura. It didn't explain why the whole thing didn't fall over when there was no one on the beds, but... some things just had to be taken for what they were. The picture of unreality was complemented by four noses and occasional snores from the blonde on the top tier of the "book" bed. Well, it's time to play Satan...I mean, Santa, yes.
Okay, let's print out the ammo bag, put the cake right here... tsk... Za-a-amiraj. Judging by the twitching of the pretty brunette's bow on the lower bed under Yang, I was heard through my sleep, even though I was using my Torchwick skills and trying to move as quietly as possible. It was a remarkable achievement, because at the age of fourteen this man could enter a house and take out all the household appliances, regardless of their size or the number of people sleeping in the room where they were stored. And no, no violence and no drugs, that's the point, just sleight of hand and a soft step. Oh! Calm down, let's get on with it, cake over here... Neo, yuck! Bad minion, don't try to color the faces of sleeping people with a marker! Why don't you go for a walk somewhere? Hmm... gone... but I didn't like the look on her face, okay, not my problem, she's a smart and sneaky girl. She won't get caught and she won't set me up. Where was I? Yes...the cake is placed, now let's add cookies...what's this? A sleep blindfold with a picture of Grimm's scarlet eyes on it? Ruby, honey, I'm responsible, your sense of taste is unparalleled, I have to take some pictures... Hmm, I guess it's not very nice for a grown man to sneak into a room of sleeping half-naked girls and start taking pictures of them...? Oh yeah, I'm a thief and a scoundrel, I'm supposed to do bad things. It's my job! So click, click, click! Okay, that's enough for now, I'll leave a note "in case I don't make it back"... or rather, in case I don't make it back, and we'll go visit the warehouses.
It took me about ten minutes to get the note done, I had the rough drafts worked out, and it wasn't too hard to put it on the cake, so it was a minimum plan. Neo rejoined me as well, satisfied.
" Should I be worried about what you've arranged? "
"(^____^)."
" Good, then I'll pretend I didn't notice anything."
" (;-P)," I was tongue-tied and winked at. I felt uncomfortable, it seems that in the morning someone will have a lot of fun... and someone will be sad.
The warehouses with consumables, including quite rare ones, were not far from the workbenches themselves - quite a logical decision, so that quite heavy stuff should be kept close to the workbenches. Neo covered us with her illusions from possible surveillance cameras, which were bound to be here, and I began the actions perfectly characterized by the phrase "Gentlemen! Bring it all out!" There's just the powdered steel cartridges I've been emptying, rare alloy bolts, and even some supplies of high-grade Ashes! It was almost physically painful not to shovel out every last crumb, but I still managed to fight off the kleptomania. Yeah, I hadn't realized I was like that. But still, five hours of thoughtful and discreet looting was something. Toward the end, when Neo got tired of holding illusions, I even pretended that I was actually working: I walked up, still covered by my partner's Manifestation, stashed a couple of very useful workbench components in my pocket that would have fit well in mine, and then any camera would confirm that honest technician Loki Asgard, having received a signal on his Scroll, spent almost three hours swearing at the world, "resurrecting" the failed equipment. He even traveled to the warehouse for spare parts and changed modules, but he resurrected it! Then with a sense of accomplishment I went to the nearest kitchen in the dormitory to make myself a cup of coffee. Even though it wasn't exactly according to the rules, but that's what almost all the technical staff did, especially those who stayed on night shifts. And the coffee at the academy was excellent.
RWBY team room. Later.
The morning of the freshly minted team began with the discovery of a large chocolate cake wrapped in red gift ribbon and a bulky unmarked bag in the middle of the room.
On top of the cake lay a note.....
Hi, girls!
For the design solution for the beds - respect! Fresh, new, creative - I can feel your style, Hood!
Now to business. Sorry - I couldn't get away until this evening, but when I got here, you were already asleep. (Black sleep mask with angry red eyes... You were definitely serious about capturing my heart irrevocably, Hood! ^__^ ) Alas, though your cute sleeping faces are immensely adorable, I'm not plodding enough to admire them until morning and do nothing else. (Appreciate it! I have shown true selflessness and heroism in humbling my baser impulses!) Anyway, you've already seen the bag of cookies and cake, so congratulations again on getting in and meeting a great team.
I'm serious! Bunty nearly woke up twice while I was taking pictures of your faces with Sweetie for my collection - she's definitely got talent! So if the Huntress path doesn't work out, I'm ready to open the doors of an equally exciting but much more lucrative profession for her. Tell her so, and I'm sure she'll be reading this letter with you.
My hat is off to Snowflake in general! Her farewell album is something unparalleled. And by the way, if she's half as much of a goody-goody as little Winter, I'm already sensing a lot of love between you two. (And why does that asshole Jacques make such good daughters?! He's a total... ahem, sorry, that's a longstanding sore point). And yes, nice sword, I'm sure you liked it too, Hood.
P.S..
Noticed that you've completely neglected your ledge upgrade. Girls, how could you do that? Have you seen yourself in the mirror? It won't be a week before half the male members of the dormitory start climbing up there to peek!
In general, I woke up greed, paternal instinct (it was definitely him! Probably...) and a little nobility. Anyway, I booby-trapped the place. Don't thank me.
P.P.S..
Dragon, don't be angry! I returned all the borrowed ammunition with interest - the bag under the bed. And yes, I experimented a bit, so now there are electric, freezing and armor-piercing charges in there. And if you want to be a total bad girl, there are gravity charges in the black box. Have fun. =^__^=
After reading the note, a graveyard silence hung in the room. Four girls with different expressions of prostration on their faces hypnotized the piece of paper, forgetting to even blink.
Ruby was the first to come to her senses:
"Yay, Yang, you got your ammo back!" - Rose exclaimed cheerfully, breaking the atmosphere of the space vacuum. Her cheeks were burning like torches.
" He... Did... Did... What?" - woke up the second Blake, pushing the words out of her separately and through force.
" That lunatic, whoever he is, wrote that he booby-trapped our ledge," Weiss replied, grabbing herself by the white ponytail of her hair in an indignant tone.
" He... Photographed... Us... In his sleep..." - still in prostration, the bow-wearer muttered.
"What's the matter?!" - Schnee snapped at Rose. - "How does he know my sister? What's with the sword jokes? Hey, answer me! According to the letter, it's one of your crazy acquaintances!"
"I don't know," squeaked Ruby, who had already grabbed a bag of cookies and now looked painfully like a sly sparrow about to escape for a snack.
"Don't you care at all what he said about the mask and the hood and all that?" - Weiss wasn't about to back down, nervously ruffling her hair. - "What's with all these nicknames anyway?"
" Well..." - The short haircut brunette with the tips of her strands dyed red shook her head uncertainly. - "I'm used to it," she shrugged, hiding a running gaze. -" It's still a little embarrassing, of course, but that's what he's been calling me since the beginning."
"Outrageous!" - The blonde girl tapped her heel in indignation. - "What kind of vulgar people are your friends! Barging into a woman's room, writing such outrageous things, also-"
"Taking pictures of us in our sleep without us noticing..." - Blake backed up in a still deadpan voice, staring off into space.
" Exactly!" - Schnee stomped her foot again. - "This is unforgivable! Totally, definitely unforgivable! Hey! Are you even listening to me?!"
"Yes, of course," nodded Ruby, whose fingers, meanwhile, were busily extracting cookies from the bag while her eyes looked at her friend with the most sincere honesty.
"And what have you got to say for yourself?!"
" Well, well... He's good," the cookie managed to escape the cruel package and was subjected to a salutary "Am!" The girl's cheeks were still flushed.
" Give me the package!" - Weiss raged, rushing toward Rose.
" Noooooo!" - The world's most precious treasure was clutched tightly to her heart, and Ruby fled.
"Stop being childish!" - Schnee, contrary to her own words, immediately chased her across the room. - "Are you our Leader or what?!"
"That's right!" - The brunette came from her bed, from the ceiling. - "I am the Leader! You can't take away the Leader's things!"
"R-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r!!!" - The white-haired girl trembled with excessive emotion, stretching her arms along her body with a crunch. - "Yang, tell your sister!"
- Hee-hee-hee-hee-hee... Hee-hee-hee-hee-hee... Ooh-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha..." The quiet, but somehow very creepy sounds of laughter finally reached her ears. The blonde's back, bent over the bag she'd retrieved from under the bed, was shaking in a kind of grim ecstasy.
" Yang?...?" - called out to the girl, forgetting all about the cookies.
"All right, redhead, I'm not going to kill you," the blonde said without listening to them and as if talking to herself. - "Yeah-ah-ah, you know how to get a girl to like you... Yeah, what a cutie! Hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee..."
" I'll go and get some tea..." - Slumping her shoulders, Blake got up off the floor and before anyone could stop her, snuck out the door.
The brunette's heart thudded in her ears, turning all other sounds into white noise. How she got to the kitchen, she didn't notice - only images of failure and her own insignificance against the background of the universe were spinning in her head. How someone could open the door, sneak into the room unnoticed and do all that he had done, the former elite operative of the White Fang refused to understand categorically. You couldn't just sneak up on fauns without being subconsciously put on some list of "their own" whose noises were instinctively ignored. But this nocturnal visitor could... The proof was just in Ruby's crunching. And it was... monstrous. So monstrous that Blake Belladonna wanted to run.
"Nice bow," an unfamiliar voice brought the girl out of the depths of thought.
Blinking, Blake shifted her gaze to a tall guy in a black leather jacket, who, with his back against the wall, was sipping coffee from a Beacon's specialty cup. The guy's face looked familiar, but she couldn't remember exactly where she'd seen him. It wasn't surprising, though - she'd seen a lot of new people in the last couple days.
"Thanks," the brunette said dutifully, and continued to fiddle with the teapot she'd just poured the brew into.
"It matches your hair," the unexpected neighbor persisted.
"Exactly," she echoed without turning around. This conversation was causing a sense of deja vu; no one in this academy seemed to be able to think of any other topic of conversation than her bow.
" I think you're depressed about something..."
Blake stopped her hand reaching for the cup and glanced at the boy. His red hair was perfectly combed back, his dark glasses protruded from a pocket on his chest, and his green eyes were looking at her with a distinct sympathy and suggestion.
"It seems to you," the girl fought down a second of weakness and took the cup in her hands.
" Very well," they stretched out contentedly from behind. - "Because I wouldn't want such a nice girl like that to bear a grudge against me."
" What do you mean?" - The brunette turned to him without understanding the phrase.
" No reason," the stranger walked to the sink and quickly rinsed the empty cup. - "By the way, now that you're here, I think I'd be right in saying that Hood is awake too and now desperately wants milk to go with her cookies?"
For a long second Blake's mind froze, refusing to accept what she'd heard and searching frantically for plausible explanations, but then... The sideways bounce had been perfect, and she'd managed not to spill a single drop from the cup, though she didn't care much for the latter.
"Was that... was that... you?"
" Was I what?" - She pretended not to understand her, but... she had a faun-fox acquaintance, a lover of rather awkward jokes. Well, he grinned the same way.
"You snuck into our room..." - another step back.
"Bunty, I'm shocked!" - the redhead tragically put his right hand to his heart. - "Shocked and disappointed by these baseless accusations!" - Blake knew she was being lied to, but... she didn't feel any aggression or animosity from the man standing across from her... And on that note, as if hearing her thoughts, the guy's green eye winked slyly. - "I didn't just sneak into the room, I also brought you presents!"
" Um..."
" Please don't make that face, I'm starting to feel guilty, and I don't like to feel guilty in front of pretty girls," the unknown but clearly very dangerous guy's smile eloquently indicated that he was barely holding back from laughing.
" And if I call the teachers now?" - Not that the girl was eager to do that, but it was the smartest thing she could think of.
"Well, first of all, I'd disappear faster than they'd show up, secondly, it wouldn't stop me from showing up again, and thirdly, the real danger to me in all of Bikon is one and a half people, and they're not likely to come running at the scream of an embarrassed teenage girl... at least not right away."
" Okay," Blake nodded, with the distinct feeling that she was doing something stupid. - "And what do you want?"
" Hmmm..." - The green-eyed man thought for a moment and, nodding to some thoughts, reported, "To have tea surrounded by beautiful girls and embarrass them a little."
" Really?" - The brunette raised her eyebrows involuntarily.
" Yes, that's my cunning plan for today," the guest confirmed. It looked ridiculous, but... in general, it fit perfectly with everything that had happened. - "Will you help me make tea and coffee for my girlfriends?"
"Why would I help you again?" - The girl asked, trying to control her mixed feelings. Something in her gut told her that she didn't have much choice, but she didn't want to give up without trying.
"Of course, to make sure I don't slip poison or anything interesting into your friends' cups. I'm not like that, of course, but you don't trust me yet, do you?"
"... Convincing," the brunette had to admit.
A couple minutes later, they were already entering the room. The red-haired guy with the tray in front, followed by Belladonna, who didn't risk turning her back on the guy. She was also bothered by the fact that she could barely hear his footsteps, having to strain hard to recognize the touch of the soles of his shoes on the floor. Plus...
" Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! What is that?!" - A shout from across the room drew her attention away.
" What?!" - it was further down the hall.
" I'm going to kill you, whoever you are!" - another terrifying howl.
" Here we go," the guest grinned and quickly dragged her inside and closed the door. - "Hello, Hood, Dragon, Snowflake! So, how are you settling in?"
"YOU?!" - the girls' shouting joined the cacophony of sounds. - "You... Didn't you write that you weren't going to wait?" - Ruby finished her thought.
"I did," the boy gestured with a magician's gesture and placed the tray of cups on the table. - "I was about to leave, but then I thought, 'Why don't I steal some coffee from old Oz?'" He's a senile old geezer, but I'll tell you, he knows his coffee. But what do you think?" - a cane appeared out of nowhere in the hands of a guest, on which he leaned. - "That bespectacled pervert from last time has gone completely insane! He's got more traps in his storeroom than Vale's main treasury! Five hours of my life went nowhere. And then he went on a late-night binge! The kind of people in charge of education these days. It's horrible. I feel sorry for you girls."
"What?" 'Steal from old Oz'? 'Glassy-eyed pervert'?" - Weiss couldn't believe that someone could speak so... so inappropriately about the famous headmaster of the finest and most prestigious of all Hunter Academies.
"'Nightbug'?" - Blake interjected with her share of questions.
" Never mind," the guest brushed off, "when you graduate from Beacon, you'll have a bunch of the most interesting memories too, and about professors included. But back to the point, you still haven't told me how you're settling in!"
" Everything's great, ginger! Thanks for the presents!" - Yang jumped up to the guy in one motion and gave him a big hug. - "Now let's talk, what's with all this body-shaming toward my cute little sister!" - The innocent friendly hug turned into a steely stranglehold, and the happy smile turned into a bloodthirsty grin.
"No, no, no, no, Dragon," the guest who had somehow managed to slip out of the grip was behind Xiao Long's back, 'I'm not Old Junior and I don't fall for such tricks,' the psycho behind her hugged the blonde around the waist and whispered, but loud enough for everyone to hear: - "As for Hood, after someone left my sister alone to the cruel world, I had to take charge! So her future as my loyal henchwoman is entirely your fault! However, you can still give her moral support by taking a neighboring position, believe me, your chances are good, especially considering your taste for destruction and unmotivated violence. "
" Hey! My violence is very motivated!" - Yang broke free of his grip, but the guest had no intention of holding her back.
"Hood, what do you think?"
" Uh... well..." - Ruby fidgeted, her cheeks flushing again, "I... y-yes, of course, Yang never... well, I mean, nothing like that," the excuses sounded so pathetic and implausible that even the blonde didn't seem to believe them.
"Oh, please don't! It runs in the family!" - Weiss snorted, remembering the way Prah had blown up when she'd met Ruby, and the way she'd thrown herself at every grimm she'd met during the entrance test. - "And stop fooling around!" - she turned to her guest. - "Why did you show up here! Whoever you are and whatever relationship you have with these two, your behavior is immoral, illegal, and simply unacceptable! Only faculty, students, staff, and persons invited by the faculty are allowed on the Academy grounds!"
"You're forgetting old Oz's field agents and all sorts of murky individuals from the secret services under the government of Vale and other countries," the redhead corrected her with a smile on his face. - "But yeah, from a layman's point of view, you're totally right!"
"What does that mean?" - Schnee frowned.
"That I totally fit those requirements!" - The guest tapped his cane happily. - "Well..." - he wrinkled the right half of his face for a moment, "maybe except for a couple of points..."
"I wonder what those are?" - Weiss was even more suspicious when she saw Ruby and Yang exchanging awkward smiles at his last words.
" Let's put it this way... Little Glinda would be very eager to meet me, but I wouldn't respond to her invitation... Yes, definitely for the next couple months that is."
" So you're an acquaintance of Ms. Goodwitch?" - Feeling that she understood at last, the girl asked again.
She already knew that Ruby had come to Beacon at the principal's personal invitation. Such invitations did not come by chance. It was obvious that his deputy had been involved, too, if only because all the documents went through her in one way or another. And this redhead obviously knew both sisters quite well, possibly being a family friend. Plus the mention of Ms. Goodwitch and Principal Ozpin in a friendly, mocking way, and the ease with which the visitor had escaped the grasp of Yang, whose strength and skills Weiss had already seen for herself. It was obvious that this man had something to do with both the school administration and the sisters.
Well, favorable connections and acquaintances were something that Schnee understood very well. It seems that the sisters aren't as simple as she originally thought.
" Yes, but unfortunately, our last meeting ended... unnecessarily warm..." - smirked the guest, confirming her suspicions and glancing over to the sisters, who, judging by the confused strained smiles, were aware of that story.
" Well..." - The white-haired girl decided not to get involved in other people's affairs, and tried to give her face the dignity befitting the occasion, "then I'm glad to meet you. However, I can't help but note that I find this way of appearing rather... extravagant and still unacceptable."
"You should get used to this sort of thing, Snowflake," the guest caught the back of the nearest chair with the hook of his cane and pulled it toward him. - "Hunters and 'normal behavior' rarely ever go together. As a rule, the stronger you are, the more you have oddities and peculiarities of varying degrees of innocence. Besides, Crowe makes me look like a model of culture and tact."
"Hey, Uncle Crowe is cool!" - stood up for her favorite relative, Ruby.
" Yes, Ruby," Yang nodded, 'but I have to admit, the redhead is right - old man Crowe... well, it's Crowe' - whoever this mysterious 'Crowe' was, Weiss already preventively disliked him.
" I'll tell him everything," Rose pouted.
" I don't mean to interrupt your... well, what you're busy doing, but the cups are getting cold," Blake snapped to attention.
" Yes, Bunty!" - The guy looked at the brunette with a bow on her head with significance. - "You can tell you're an experienced man - war is war, but lunch is on a schedule!" - Blake glanced suspiciously at the guest, but he continued to grin as if nothing had happened, and a second later the redhead flashed a gesture of a magician's gesture when he pulled out a kitchen knife. The type's manual dexterity made him envious... a little. - "Who's having cake?"
"Why do you call us that weird name?" - Weiss accepted her coffee cup. - "We have names!"
" Names are too boring," the guest's attention was focused on handing out cups, "but cute nicknames are another matter entirely!"
"But I don't like it!" - Schnee crossed her arms over her chest.
" Mmmm... You're just like little Winter," the redhead squinted at her with either reprimand or hidden mockery. - "I guarantee, in a month's time, the boys will give you the nickname 'Snow Queen' too. But," the ribbon tying the cake box fell to the floor, and the knife point flew up, demanding attention to the next words, 'before that happens, I can suggest White Angel,' the guest suggested with a slight huff, wiggling his eyebrows. The girl felt her eyelid twitch.
" Kha-kha-kha-kha-kha..." - The sisters had caught a cold, there was no other way to explain such a synchronized coughing fit.
"'Ms. Schnee' would be much better," Weiss continued to insist.
"I suppose such a beautiful, well-mannered and educated lady would forgive a little weakness to a man with a cake?" - The platinum blonde chose to remain silent, but she didn't refuse a piece of cake.
"Why do you call that Winter, whoever she is, a little girl?" - Yang stepped in, deciding whether to keep talking to the asshole or try to knock him down. A plate with a flavorful morsel of baked goods in it tipped the scales.
"Winter is our Snowflake's older sister, and also the love of your Uncle Crow's life," Weiss choked on the spoon she had just put in her mouth. - "Or rather..." - Looking at the way Snee was clearing her throat, the guest saw fit to correct herself, "They have a very complicated relationship. I'm not strong in the field of school flirting, but their games of "Pull the girl you like by her pigtails to make her yell at you" or "Knock her on the head with a briefcase and run away, but not seriously, but so that she would catch up with you and beat you up" have long ago turned into some very unhealthy forms. Hunters," the guest said, once more alluding to the not-so-healthy psyche of the people who chose this path.
"Uncle Crowe has the love of his life, and she's like Weiss..." - Ruby whispered, hiding her mouth in her hands.
"Well, a little taller, but yeah, just like her," the redhead confirmed, finishing cutting and arranging the cake.
"You didn't answer the question!" - Yang accused the guest of a misdemeanor, actively working with a spoon.
" That's what I call all the beautiful girls who will want to and have some chance of hurting me when I meet them, but are good and kind themselves. So you ladies have a pretty good chance too! Ouch!" - The guy turned his head to the left. - "Neo, don't pinch yourself, I didn't call you baby because I think like you want to hurt me! And no elbow shoving, it's not like I said short stature was bad!"
" Is he... talking to an empty corner?" - Blake asked her friends cautiously.
" Uh... Hehe. Well... Neo is his imaginary friend," Ruby clarified, ducking down and trying to speak as quietly as possible. - "I... had one of those too... but that was a long time ago!" - she corrected herself at once.
"Yeah... Things are pretty bad for him," Yang nodded to her sister. - "I even feel sorry for him. Almost."
" ..." - Weiss simply remained silent, still completely unable to accept the fact that Winter had someone. And that someone was some kind of... some kind of scumbag, even by the standards of the sisters and that redhead! And Winter had kept quiet about him... though Weiss could understand why, but still... she was her sister! She could have told her!
" So... that's a 'Hunter problem' too, huh?" - Belladonna clarified, still bending over Rose.
"You get the gist of it, Bunty!" - The redhead nodded favorably, not even pretending he hadn't heard. - "One correction: Neo isn't an 'imaginary' friend, she's real. If you'd been paying attention, you'd have noticed that we weren't carrying five cups and saucers, but six, and that I was laying out six slices of cake, one of which Neo was eating right now. "
Four pairs of eyes crossed over to the tray where all the cups had recently stood. The tray was already empty. Three eyes crossed over to Lider.
" Ah... I wasn't looking that way," Rose immediately excused herself, hiding her nose in her coffee mug.
"I don't want to go on about it for some reason," Blake said, looking around at the remains of the cake after five (or six - it was impossible to tell from those remains) eaters.
" Okay, okay, enough about me!" - smiled at the guest. - "How's your first day? Already imbued with the Grandeur of Old Port?" - A friendly groan was his answer. - "Aha, so you're already imbued..."
All in all, it had been a strange but, paradoxically, very pleasant meeting. Their guest could joke, tell a joke, and sometimes even just make a couple of phrases... by the same strange coincidence, most of those phrases were meant for Capyush... ugh, I mean Ruby. But the cake was eaten, the tea and coffee were drunk, and it was time for the guest to say goodbye.
"Alrighty, girls, it was nice to see you and meet the new members of the team, but, even though you are obscenely cute and beautiful, my villainous duty requires my presence in other places. I guess we'll see each other again... one way or another, hehe!" - And with those words, their guest... went out the window.
" Decent people go out the door!" - snorted Weiss, watching the scene.
" Oh! Ms. Goodwitch!" - spoke up Blake, who continued to watch the unknown Hunter exit.
" And what is it?!"
" If you keep it down, we might hear something," the other girls fell silent, and the camouflaging cat perked up her ears.
Meanwhile, their guest was walking toward the takeoff platform as if nothing had happened.
"Young man, what are you doing in Beacon territory? Hmm... your face looks vaguely familiar. "
"Good afternoon, Ms. Goodwitch. I'm Loki Asgard, new tech, just off the night shift."
" Oh, that's right," the deputy director relaxed a little. - "But your shift ended almost three hours ago?" - but not all the way through.
" Yeah, except that just towards the end of the shift, an alert fell on the Scroll about a dead workbench in the workshops," the redhead ran a hand down the back of his head, lightly ruffling his hair. - "While I diagnosed it, while I found what was wrong, while I got new modules from the warehouse and replaced them..."
"But you weren't coming from the side of the workshops..." - The teacher continued to frown.
"Um... yeah, but... you know, second twenty-four hours on my feet, and the guys told me you can get a cup of coffee in the dormitory. I hope I didn't do anything wrong?"
" No," the woman finally relaxed and even smiled with the tips of her lips. - "Thank you for your hard work, now if you'll excuse me, I have to go."
"Of course, good day, Ms. Goodwitch."
"You too, Mr. Asgard," Glinda nodded and headed towards the dormitory again. - "By the way..." - she stopped halfway through, "have you noticed anything strange in the dormitory?"
"Uh, no, just some bunch of students upstairs making noise discussing something, but I couldn't make it out, and I was more in a hurry to finish my snack so I wouldn't disturb anyone when they started coming down," the guy replied with the most honest look.
"Okay," the conversation was finally over, and the two men parted ways.
"I can't believe it! He just took off! Right through Ms. Goodwitch!" - Yang was the first to break the silence. - "What a sneaky ass.." - she glanced at Ruby, "sneaky asshole..." - "The type," she said with another slanted glance, "of the type," the girl pointed out another nuance... "And he had us flashing in front of him in our nighties for an hour and we didn't even notice! The creepy crook!" - the blonde is on fire. - "I'll kill you!"
" I agree about the rogue, but... Isn't he a friend of yours?" - Weiss asked. - "And by the way, what's his name? That rude fellow never introduced himself to us, and I didn't hear his name in my conversation with Ms. Goodwitch."
" Ahhhh..." - Ruby and Yang looked at each other. - "Well... That... Hehe... "
" Who? Speak up!"
" It was Roman Torchwick," Ruby pressed her head into her shoulders guiltily.
" And he's not really a friend, more like a forced acquaintance who's very good at putting you in a situation where you can't start punching him in the face!" - Yang added in a cursive voice, helping herself with gesticulation.
"WHAT...? I mean... That's the Torchwick that's been on every channel for a week now! We had Vale's most wanted thief sitting and drinking tea with us?!"
"Hush, hush," Yang fearfully covered her friend's mouth with her hand. - "You saw it yourself - there was nothing we could do!"
" And... no one has seen my Scroll?" - Blake asked melancholically, digesting the fact that her professional pride and ability to camouflage had just been marched on with wrought iron boots.
"There, I think," Ruby pointed to the crumpled blanket on Belladonna's bed, with the edge of the device peeking out from under the edge.
" Thank you... Oh..." - Blake thanked, and pulled out the Scroll and froze, staring at its screen.
"What is it?" - Yang sensed something wrong.
" He put himself in my contacts as 'Number One Bow Fan'..." - The brunette reported in a lifeless voice, in a strange state of mind. On the one hand, assuming that her skills were worse than those of the country's most wanted criminal wasn't a big deal; he still hadn't been caught, after all. But on the other hand, the fact that he was interested in them was already alarming. Like his words about her talent and his offer of a "different" profession... No, she had broken with the past and would no longer slip down that crooked path! Isn't that right?
"What an asshole!" - Noticing her own Scroll under the blanket, Weiss quickly grabbed it and checked the phone book first. - "He wrote himself down for me: 'Cute Bad Boy'!"
" А?" - Xiao Long was also interested and grabbed the last machine that appeared in the pile. -" "Big Boss?! You can't wait!"
One fact came to the girls' attention, and three pairs of eyes turned to the suspiciously quiet and trying to appear inconspicuous Ruby.
"And your Scroll isn't here," the brunette spoke first.
"Uh... Well..." Rose's eyes darted around the room, looking for something to translate the conversation.
" He already called you," the blonde recalled.
" And how did this immensely insolent man get his number to you?" - Weiss continued.
" It doesn't matter!" - Ruby jumped up from her seat. -" Let's better put the dishes away!"
The girls looked at each other.
"Give me your Scroll!" - Ms. Xiao Long demanded in an uncompromising voice.
" No!" - The red-haired huntress recoiled to the other side of the room, clutching the device to her chest. - "That's private information!"
" Blake, you on the left, Weiss on the right, me in the center. Grab her!"
" Not fair!!!"
A short scuffle with squeals and kicking ended with the majority winning....
"Your Dark Knight?!" - Yang cried out like a wounded beluga after obtaining the Scroll. - "I'm going to rip that redhead off!"
"Yaa-a-a-a-a-ng, you're mean! Give it back!" - Ruby snatched the Scroll from her grip, which had loosened after the key information was announced, and fled to her bed under the ceiling, pouting.
" Hey, no offense," the blonde followed her, though she didn't bother jumping up, only standing by the bed. - "Ruby, come on. Come on, don't be mad!"
" What are we going to do?" - Blake weighed her device in her hand and looked at her friends. - "Remove it?"
"Of course!" - Weiss gingerly fixed her hair. - "No one is allowed to steal from the Schnee family just to leave their number!"
" Well... In theory, we could use his number," Belladonna informed, not really believing she was saying that herself.
" Okay. All right," the platinum blonde, who was suspiciously quick to agree, agreed. - "But he won't be a Cute Bad Boy, he'll be a Redheaded Prick!" - the girl assured him with feigned dignity and importance.
" Wow," Yang whistled. -"'Weiss's contact list will have someone named 'cheater' in it...'"
"Don't you dare, you hear me?! Don't say that like it's an indicator of my upbringing and social circle!" - Schnee got mad.
" I'm not saying anything," Xiao Long glanced at the ceiling with a chuckle. - "Hey, Ruby, are you chilling in there?"
"Hrrrrrr," came the reply from the bowels of the pillow. - "You made me embarrassed! You're a bad sister, Yang!"
" Well, I'm sorry-"
" I'll carry the dishes away," Blake sighed and, gathering the cups onto a tray, opened the door. -" Um... gals... I think we missed something."
Team RWBY's ears perked up:
"...no pushing! Girls and those with the biggest paint job, let them go first! Go to the other floors, there may be bathrooms available!" - Jon Arc, flashing his drawn little mustache and black bangs, tried to direct a few students into positions.
" Aye, Captain! Aye aye, Captain!" - replied a satisfied Nora Valkery, trying to fix her painted glasses. - "Wren, have I mentioned before that you look good with that beard and mustache?"
" Yes, Nora," replied the fellow with the drawn-on 'Chinese' beard and mustache melancholically, "as many as seventeen times in the last five minutes."
" Captain, all the bathrooms are occupied!" - Pyrrha Nikos came up to Jon, painted with brutal scars, also drawn, of course. - Team Cardinal had tried to storm one of the bathrooms, but were beaten shamefully by the upperclassmen!
"Sinks in the kitchens?"
"No chance..."
" So!" - broke the general "business panic" with the icy voice of Glinda Goodwitch. - "What's going on here?"
"M-Miss Goodwitch. Ma'am," Zhawn stretched out in a string, at whom the superior gaze fell, "all the students on the floor woke up this morning with their faces painted with indelible marker. And now we're trying to wash it off..." - Some of the illogic of the phrase reached Ark, but it was true to the point.
At this point Blake slammed the door shut, she was no longer interested in further dialog.
"What a bastard!" - Yang hissed, staring out the window with scarlet eyes.
" Who?" her sister didn't understand, even forgetting her offense.
"Torchwick! It's got to be his doing, anyway!"
" You think so?" - Weiss raised an eyebrow.
"Do you know any other crazy guy that can stealthily walk into a room with a team of Hunters, do his evil deed, and just as stealthily walk out?"
"N-no," Schnee answered uncertainly. - "But why would he do that? "
" Who would know? That redhead is crazy! Maybe it was some kind of clever plan to distract attention, or maybe he just wanted to! Whatever, we've got a bigger problem right now!"
" What?" - Ruby didn't understand.
" Ruby, who do you think that mob of pissed off students with painted faces would think if they saw us - clean and without a trace of hard scrubbed 'decoration'?" - jabbing a finger toward the door, the blonde made scary eyes.
*Glotte*," Rose swallowed noisily. - "Ahhhh... as team leader, I command you: we are not leaving this room!" - The weekend in Beacon promised to be just as interesting as the weekdays.
Torchwick's "Redheaded Rascal" novel. Almost there.
"I knew I was taking a big risk, and when I thought about it, I didn't really need to go to Beacon, I could have gotten the same materials from the warehouses in Vale, and I could have visited the girls during their weekend trip to the city if I really wanted to, but instead, I went into Ozpin's lair on a wild goose chase. And the disgusting thing is, I loved it! It seems that my joking assumptions about cockroaches in the heads of powerful Aura users are not so joking, but if the original Roman had an obsession with himself, a kind of narcissism, then I am "drawn" to be a trickster. Still, Glinda was great, maybe she'll even give Loki a bonus? I was so dedicated to fixing the workbench, I even got overtime!
"(^_^)," Neo liked it too.
" I'll have to stop by again sometime... Maybe actually try to find and clean out Oz's stash? It has to be there, it just has to be there!"
" (>_>)..."- I was tapped lightly. - "(T_T)..." - and made pitiful eyes like, "Are you really going to chase tired little me somewhere else? Pluck, pluck, pluck."
"Not today, of course, and not even this week, but the idea is... promising," the girl nodded in response and made herself comfortable in the passenger bullhead seat, covering her eyes. We were really on our feet for the second day, even if it wasn't much for an Aura user, but both of us were using our Manifestations to our fullest potential, Neo, who was covering up for me and then hiding from four observers during the tea party.
But anyway, an hour later we were home, and as I watched the girl stretch contentedly, I remembered a very important intention.
" Hmmm... and you know I promised you something... mentally..." - my voice took on an ingratiating tone.
"(O_O)?"
" You see, Neo, I..." - my speech was interrupted by the sound of the Scroll ringing. It wasn't a scroll for work, but a scroll I'd purchased for communication with Taiyang's daughters, and now with two other subscribers. I had a different number for Cinder and White Fang.
"Yes, yes?" - Under Neopolitan's interested gaze, I take the call.
"Uh, hi... This is Ruby. Ruby Rose... Am I interrupting? " - Red Riding Hood's timid voice gave away her mistress's tension.
"No, Hood, it's always good to hear from you!" - I almost didn't lie. - "Is something wrong?"
"Well... Not really. I wanted to ask..."
" About what?"
"Why..." - the girl was silent in uncertainty, but still continued the sentence, "you painted the faces of half the dormitory?"
"I what?" - I raised an eyebrow with an expression, looking into Neo's eyes.
"Half the dorm is wearing mustaches, glasses, beards, and bangs. They don't wash off, some kind of permanent marker was used," Ruby answered readily, like an honors student. -"So... why did you do that?"
"Uh," Neo innocently flapped her eyelashes in response to my gaze and the sounds from the Scroll, glowing with a completely shameless but very satisfied face. - "It wasn't me, it was Neo. She wanted to paint you at first, but I wouldn't let her. Then, while I was mining the ledge, she had nothing better to do, I think that's the reason."
" Oh... Neo... I get it..."
"You don't believe me," I stated with reproach in my voice.
" No, of course I believe you!" - I could feel her eyes racing.
" So, then, do you? Nobody believes the poor King of Thieves, eh, why should they?"
"Uh..." - the other end was clearly "hung up."
"You've got it all figured out, Hood... I approve!"
"Uh?" - The "tone signal" changed tone a little bit.
"A healthy paranoia is a healthy paranoid. I'll introduce you to Neo later!"
"H-okay! Uh-oh. Sorry, I gotta run! I'll call you later! - "and then she disconnected."
" No, really? Indelible marker?"
"(^_^)."
" Okay, just leaving that topic... Where were we there?" - really, now and having already set my mind on certain things, I just didn't feel like discussing it - there was no point... - "Oh yeah, on the promise..."
" (O_o)?"
" You see, Neo, I'm a healthy male body, and when I'm being ridden for hours on end by a pretty girl I'm already crazy about... You're going to have to take responsibility!"
"(o_O)????"
" Come here!" - Grabbing the lady who didn't think of running away, I started kissing her lips greedily, gradually moving to her neck, while my hands were busy undoing the buttons of her jacket.
"(>_<)!.." - she pulled away and extended her right hand in a stopping gesture.
" Is something wrong?" - It was hard to hold back, and I didn't expect that, to be honest, but I couldn't offend this cutie either. She quickly ran back to her room, and then quickly ran back out without her jacket, but with a pack of pills.
" (^_^)," Neo squeezed a couple out of the blister and swallowed them. After that...
" Mmmm!" - So, who's seducing who in the end? No, it was commendable that the lady had taken the initiative, but I wasn't going to let her play first fiddle. I picked up the girl hanging on me and passionately kissing her ass, once again making sure that she was perfectly taut and firm, and went to my room... or should I say our room? It didn't matter, we had a long day ahead of us, and neither of us planned to spend it talking.